Rutherford High School grad Gearity battles through injuries, still an All-American

Heather Gearity, pictured here in 2012, after her first year winning the National title in the 400-meter hurdles.

Heather Gearity was looking to make it three years in a row winning the NCAA Division III 400 hurdles.

But unfortunately for Gearity injuries crept up to her at the end of January and followed her along during the spring track and field season.

The Rutherford High School graduate said that she felt better when the NJAC meet came around midway through the season, but the lower-body injury put her behind in her training and in turn affected her in the NCAA Division III finals this season.

Gearity was looking to make it back-to-back-to-back NCAA Division III titles in the 400 hurdles at the NCAA finals in May in Delaware, Ohio.

But the training time that was hindered by her injury did her in and she finished in fourth place in the national finals race.

"That was pretty painful, and it's great to be done," said Gearity, who has been participating in the hurdles since she was in seventh grade. "I just thought it would go away, but the pain did not go away. It wasn't a stress fracture. It was just inflammation so it wasn't going away."

Despite not grabbing her third consecutive title, Gearity made Montclair State history as she became the first Redhawk to earn multiple All-American first team honors. Gearity collected the first team honor in 2013 and 2014.

While it was a fourth place finish with a time of 59.64 seconds, it was mixed feelings because she was able to battle her injury. "I didn't think I was going to be so fast because of the injury," said Gearity. "It was very frustrating."

Since she is a fifth-year senior, she was not eligible to participate in the indoor track and field season so the outdoor season was extremely important. "I worked harder before the season than I ever have and maybe I worked too hard," said Gearity.

But while she fell short of her drive for a third national title, she had one of the best runs in the 1,600 relay as she teamed with fellow Rutherford High School graduate, Hannah DeMatteo, to finish seventh at the NCAA Division III finals with a time of 3:47.71, a school record.

The Montclair State foursome came out of nowhere to finish seventh in the country and be named All Americans. "It was very unexpected," said Gearity. "It was awesome, and it was probably the biggest point for me this season."

Gearity was the leadoff with a group of Nicosia Henry and Morgan Byrne along with DeMatteo, a freshman who was second in the relays.

It was the third time in less than two weeks that the Montclair State relay team broke the school record.

The 1600 relay team had sliced almost five seconds from their time in the last three weeks.

DeMatteo was the new kid on the block and the lone freshman in the foursome in the NCAA Division III finals.

"I had mixed emotions," said DeMatteo. "I felt a lot of excitement, but was nervous because I was going into the meet where everybody was good."

With the experience of being at the NCAA finals meet, it has made DeMatteo's work harder in the offseason. "Being there makes me more motivated to come back next spring," said DeMatteo.

And DeMatteo never in a million years thought she would be running in the NCAA finals at the end of her first year at Montclair State. "Not at all," said the Montclair State freshman. "It was a real cool opportunity."

Gearity and DeMatteo took the tough course and unexpected course to the NCAA finals.

The foursome needed to break the school record and set it with a time of 3:48.86 which was the seventh best time in Division III at that time. "We knew that we had the potential and could put it all together," said Gearity. "We knew that we had to run our hearts out."

And for DeMatteo going into the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet, the foursome was just looking to get "ranked" and a bid to the NCAA finals. "We just were trying to be ranked," said DeMatteo. "We were just trying to get the final spots."